Dawntrail Diary - Jumping To Crafting

Tomorrow marks six weeks after the launch of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker. I am not playing according to how most people play the game. I powered through the content I don't really like mechanically and am working on something I really like, crafting. As I've done since launch I'm posting my thoughts and activity over the last week.

Not so critically acclaimed - I've heard and seen a lot of complaining about the expansion since I reached the gates of The Interphos and started looking around. Are these just disgruntled content creators looking for clicks or are the content creators tapping into a general feeling? I went to Metacritic to compare reactions.

• Final Fantasy XIV (aka 1.0) - Metascore: 49, User Score: 4.0
• A Realm Reborn - Metascore: 86, User Score: 7.7
• Heavensward - Metascore: 86, User Score: 8.7
• Stormblood - Metascore: 87, User Score: 8.9
• Shadowbringers - Metascore: 90, User Score: 9.1
• Endwalker - Metascore: 92, User Score: 8.8
• Dawntrail - Metascore: 79, User Score: 6.2

As of now both critics and players agree that Dawntrail is the worst expansion. One thing I noticed is that Yoshi-P tried to use American voice actors, something not done since A Realm Reborn. But I have noticed a lot of other things to criticize. I do have to wonder it part of the problem was Yoshi-P stretching Creative Studio III too thin by trying to develop both Dawntrail and Final Fantasy XVI at the same time.

Does equipment matter? - Watching some of the criticism of players who think the content is very difficult, I get the feeling all the people saying the content is easy are using a programmable mouse. I did have a mouse with thumb buttons but the mouse was too big for me to use the buttons. I went out and purchased a Logitech G305 mouse. The mouse is less sophisticated but does fit my hand with the way I hold my mouse. I'll use the mouse as I level up my Trust NPCs to see if hardware makes a difference.

The next step in crafting - I finished levelling up all my crafting classes to the level cap last week. The next step is obtaining new gear. As an omni-crafter I am making all my own gear. People can inspect others' gear and see who made the gear. I have enough pride to want people to see I didn't just buy the gear off the market board.

One good design choice is making all gathering classes use one set of gear and all crafting classes use a second set. So I only need to make 20 items not including tools. Each class gets a primary and secondary tool, except for fishing which is stuck with a level 62 spear for spear fishing. So that's 21 additional items I need to make.

Each item has sub-components I also need to make. I made a list to show approximately how much crafting I've done so far.

In addition, Black Stars require a sub-component, Magnesia Whetstones, to make as well, meaning I made 214 high quality items this weekend. Now all I have to do is pull from the pile to make the end products.

So far I did the easy step. Next up is selecting the order to craft the items and determining how to meld my equipment the next set of crafting and gathering equipment recipes arrives in November with patch 7.1. 

Regular as clockwork -  Part of the reason I can delay finishing the MSQ is due to the regularity with which the devs release expansion patches. So I know I have until November to finish the MSQ. Is finishing the final trial a month or two after the final 4-character duty ideal? No. Especially where the enjoyment of the story is concerned. But I do need to get better at combat. As long as I finish the MSQ before November to unlock all the patch 7.1 content I'll be fine.